Nicely said. I support being more conscious of the positive to negative ratio. Few people enjoy being scolded all day long; it may feel good but it hurts the cause of changing opinions and getting people to look at facts with an open mind, in my view.

Adam Radwanski of the Globe and Mail had a number of provocative tweets over the weekend on public discourse by economists and public policy: There is much that is right here and there is much that is well... wrong. Let's start with the latter, ignoring the irony that if there's one group th...

Hi Frances,
I share your opinion that big changes are coming. I didn't understand this bit though:
"I believe there is a general tendency to see what male academics do as "real reseach", and what female academics do as - I don't know - something less serious, and certainly less worthy of public support."
What is the gender difference in research that you mean? Do you mean gender diffs across fields like labour or health economics vs macro or econometrics?

In other universities the teacher is prohibited from receiving any honorary or fee from his pupils, and his salary constitutes the whole of the revenue which he derives from his office. His interest is, in this case, set as directly in opposition to his duty as it is possible to set it. It is the...

Here's my theory: Some students struggle with economics because they do not fully understand the mathematical tools economists use. Profs do not know how their students were taught mathematics, what their students know, what their students don't know - and have no idea how to help their students...